Please be sure to read the product label of any insecticide you choose to use to get information on the personal protective safety gear you will need. In most situations, it is recommended that you wear long pants, a long sleeved shirt, closed toe shoes with socks, chemical resistant gloves, and goggles. In areas where ventilation is poor, a manufacturer may recommend you wear a mask or a respirator. We have put together two different safety kits that will make selecting the correct safety gear easier for you.

How to Get Rid of Ants

Indoor & Outdoor Ant Treatment Guide

Getting Rid of Ants For Good Requires A Variety of Methods

You Can Learn How To Kill Ants Yourself With These Steps

Getting rid of ants can be tough because of their opportunistic nature. Most species are able to nest indoors and outdoors in a wide variety of places and they can survive on a wide variety of food sources. To effectively get rid of ants you usually need to include proper indoor and outdoor sanitation as well as an actual pesticide treatment which includes a mixture of professional-grade baits and sprays. Follow these steps to eliminate your ant problem.

Indoor Sanitation and Preparation

Get Rid of What Attracts Ants

Sanitation is definitely one of the most important steps to getting rid of ants, and most ant treatment programs will fail if this step is skipped or poorly implemented. You must eliminate what attracts ants, including as many food sources and water sources as possible. Finding and sealing areas that the ants are using to gain entrance into the structure is also important.

1A

Eliminate Food Sources Indoors

Getting rid of food sources is one of the most important parts of an Ant control program. Sanitation of your kitchen and other areas of your home requires dedication and hard work, but is necessary for an ant-free living space.

Clean Kitchen Appliances. Ants in your kitchen can live off grease and food spills under and behind your appliances. Clean under and behind the stove, refrigerator, microwave, toaster, dishwasher, and around and underneath the sink.

Empty and Clean Cabinets. Crumbs and food spills from stored food products provide a buffet for ants. Clean to eliminate this food source.

Keep Food in Sealed Containers. Ants are small enough to get into cardboard packaging or loosely closed boxes and bags. Store food in metal, glass, or hard plastic sealable containers.

Limit food consumption to one room of the house. Keeping all food and eating in one area of the home will eliminate crumbs and food spills and it limits your infestation to one area of the house.

Clean the kitchen thoroughly each night before bed. Ants come out to feed at night, so cleaning the kitchen each night will leave nothing for foraging ants to eat. Wipe down kitchen countertops, wash all dishes, clean floors well, and put away all food.

Vacuum or sweep all other non-food areas of the home every few days. Picking up stray crumbs and ant feces, skins, body parts, and egg sacs - which contain pheromones that attract other Ants to the same areas - will help keep your home clean.

Empty pet food containers overnight, or cover tightly.

Keep garbage cans clean and covered.

1B

Eliminate Water Sources Indoors

Ants drink water. While it's difficult to get rid of all water sources, you need to eliminate as many as possible.

Fix leaky plumbing and sweating pipes.

Before going to bed, dry all sinks, tubs, and showers completely and plug the drains.

Place wet dish rags and sponges in an airtight plastic storage bag overnight, place them directly in the washing machine, or hang them outdoors to dry.

Pet water dishes should be emptied and dried at night and refilled in the morning.

Empty drip tray from under the refrigerator.

1C

Eliminate Harborage and Entry Points

By eliminating potential hiding and nesting spots ants will find your home or structure less attractive. Ant colonies can number from a couple of hundred to many thousand ants per colony. That means failure to seal entry points can allow new ant colonies or ant subcolonies to re-infest your home.

Seal cracks and crevices around window frames and door frames, around baseboards and other places where you have noticed ants entering the structure with caulk or another suitable material.

Seal holes around cables pipes and wires with copper mesh or another suitable material.

Step2

Use Indoor Ant Baits and Sprays

Now that you have completed the sanitation and preparation, you can start the process of applying products to eliminate the current ant infestation. We recommend using three key products to effectively get rid of ants:

A non-repellent aerosol ant spray insecticide for use around doors, windows and baseboards.

Two kinds of ant baits for use in cabinets, on counters, near sinks and other places where sprays would not be appropriate:

a protein-based bait, and

a carbohydrate-based bait

This combination of products will help get the ant infestation under control much more quickly than using any one product alone. We include these key products in our indoor ant control kit to make product selection easier for you.

Products needed for Step 2

Indoor Ant Baiting

Ant baits are a very affordable and very easy to use product to get a handle on ant infestations! This video will highlight the different areas that are safe to place ant baits on the inside of your home or business.
Ant bait is an excellent way to get a handle on indoor ant control. Indoor ant bait typically comes in a gel form or already packed into a bait station. Other ant baits come as a kit where you can put the bait into the station yourself. Bait stations are recommended to keep bait fresh and off of household surfaces. Place bait in areas where activity has been noticed. These may include: in kitchen cabinets and on counter tops, behind, next to, and under the stove. Near sinks or drains, around pipes, cords, and cables that come out of the wall. Behind and under bathroom fixtures. Around the medicine cabinet and vanity. Make sure not to place the bait directly in the way of an established trial or on the ants themselves. This will cause the ants to avoid the bait.
You should check the bait placements once a week and replenish as needed until you are no longer seeing any ants.
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Place bait in areas where ant activity has been noticed. It's important to avoid purposefully putting the bait in the middle of an ant trail or on the ants themselves: this will make the ants avoid the bait and make the baiting ineffective. Instead, put the bait near ant activity or next to ant trails. To help keep ant bait fresh and off of surfaces we recommend placing the bait in the bait plate stations provided in the kit. Some examples of places where the bait can be placed are:

In kitchen cabinets and on counter tops.

Behind, next to, and under the stove.

Near sinks or drains

Around pipes, cords, and cables that come out of the wall.

Behind and under bathroom fixtures.

Around the medicine cabinet and vanity.

You should check the bait placements once a week and replenish as needed until ant activity has stopped.

Products needed for Step 2A

Spraying for Ants Indoors

With tons of ant sprays on the market, we give you the scoop on the best one to use. This video will also teach you how to properly and safely use indoor ant sprays to kill unwanted ants crawling around your home or business.
There are times during the ant life cycle when baiting is not the most effective method of control. For example, when ants are in a nesting cycle, or if they already have a steady and safe supply of food, they will not be very attracted to ant baits. That is why we recommend using a non-repellent ant spray to supplement your ant baiting program. A non-repellent spray is an insecticide that the target pest is not able to detect. Instead, the ants will wander over the treated surfaces, picking the poison up on their bodies and then carrying it back to nesting areas to spread to the colony. Non-repellent ant sprays are super easy to use. Simply insert the straw applicator included with the spray can, and apply a steady stream directly into cracks and crevices in areas where you have noticed ant activity. These may include: along baseboards, under and along appliances, around window frames, door frames, and where utility cables, pipes, and wires enter the structure. You should begin seeing fewer live ants 2 to 3 days after your first thorough application.
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We recommend using a non-repellent ant spray to supplement baiting. We make this recommendation because there are times that ants may be in a nesting cycle or they may already have a steady, safe food source and they will ignore baits. We put a non-repellent ant spray in our ant kits because the ants will not be able to detect the spray and it is picked up on their bodies and carried back to the nesting areas. Non-repellent ant sprays take several days to start killing but that gives the product time to start spreading throughout the colony, infecting more ants.

Using the included straw applicator, apply the spray directly into cracks and crevices along baseboards, under appliances, around door frames, window frames and in areas where utilities (cables, pipes, wires) enter into the structure and other areas where ants have been entering your structure.

Products needed for Step 2B

Outdoor Sanitation and Preparation

How to Get Rid of & Kill Ants Outside

What is Integrated Pest Management? This video explains the main aspects of an integrated pest management program for homeowners.
Integrated Pest Management is a holistic approach to pest control that includes prevention and monitoring. With just a few simple steps, you can protect the exterior of your home or business from a pest infestation. Make sure to eliminate cracks and crevices around door frames, window frames, and other entry points by caulking or sealing them. Check to see that all window screens, door sweeps and weather strippings are fully intact to stop pests from squeezing in. Apply long lasting insecticide dusts to your wall voids to eliminate insects that may be harboring in these areas. If you have mulch piles, make sure to keep them turned and raked at least 6 inches away from structures to create a dry zone. This will discourage insects from crossing over the area and create an ideal area to apply insecticide sprays. Spray the exterior of your home with a residual insecticide every 30 to 90 days to keep roaches out. Keep shrubs, bushes, plants, and trees trimmed back so they do not touch your home. Also, make sure to eliminate as much yard debris as possible, such as leaves and branches. Stacked firewood should be moved away from the structure.
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If you find that you have ants crawling around the exterior of your home or structure you should also consider treating outdoors to avoid a new infestation indoors. Just like treating indoors, you must eliminate or change the environment around your home that made the ants find your property attractive to start with.

Sanitation means more than cleaning up food that has been left out or sweeping up certain areas. In terms of ant control, sanitation means changing or removing the things ants need to live. All pests, including ants, need three main things to exist on your property:

Food

Water or sufficient moisture

Shelter

Pests seek these things when looking for a place to live, and by removing or limiting one or more of these aspects, you will help make your property less attractive to pests.

Sanitation:

To prevent ants from using trees and foliage to reach your home and gain access to it, trim back trees and shrubs so that the branches and foliage do not touch your home. This will also help avoid the need for pesticide applications.

Eliminate moist, shady areas where ants like to nest by trimming bushes and shrubs up from the ground so you can see beneath them.

Create a "dry zone" - an area devoid of any landscape material - that ants are likely to avoid by raking mulch, pine straw or other landscape bedding at least 6 inches from the foundation.

To reduce moisture retention and discourage nest building, turn mulch or other bedding material every couple of weeks.

Insects and other household pests are known to live in gutters and downspouts, so clean these out frequently.

Keep your lawn short, mowing as often as necessary.

To eliminate potential harborages for a wide variety of insects and pests, remove grass clippings, leaf piles, stacked wood, and other lawn debris.

If fruit trees are on the property, pick fruit from trees when ripe and pick up fallen fruit from the ground.

Outdoor trash cans and dumpsters provide food and shelter for pests, so store them as far away from structures as possible and check for tight fitting lids.

Wash out trash cans and dumpsters with an ammonia solution when needed.

Products needed for Step 3

Outdoor Baiting and Spraying

Having some ants in your yard or near your home is normal and is actually needed to keep other pest populations under control. When the ants become so numerous that they start to move indoors you will usually need to kill them outdoors around the perimeter of the structure. By using a mixture of ant baits and non repellent ant spray you can eliminate the ant colonies near the structure. We have put together an Outdoor Ant Kit to help make selecting the right products for your needs easy for you.

Products needed for Step 4

Spraying For Ants Outside

One of the more traditional methods for controlling ants is to treat outside with a spray. In this video, we will highlight how to spray on the outside of your home or business. This will help to take control of the ants as close to the source as possible!
If you have ants in your home or business, chances are good they are coming from an outdoor nest where they travel back and forth for food and water. Since they are coming from outside it makes sense to control them at the source. There are many ant killer sprays on the market. We strongly recommend a non-repellent residual spray like Termidor SC. Ants are likely to detect and avoid other sprays that are not labeled as “non-repellent”. Termidor and other products like it cannot be smelled, tasted, or felt by ants. Instead they crawl unsuspectingly through treated areas, picking up poison on their bodies and carrying it back to the nest. At the nest, ants not directly exposed to the treated area will be controlled as they come into contact with affected ants. This “Transfer Effect means you’ll see its effects on ants in one to three days and most species will be controlled within the first week following the treatment. Now it’s time to apply the ant spray.
You will need a 1 gallon hand pump sprayer. For Termidor, mix .08 oz of product with each gallon of water. For any other product, refer to the label for mixing instructions. Most jobs take 1-2 gallons of solution to complete a perimeter application. As you walk around your home, spray a barrier that extends one foot up the foundation walls and one foot out on the ground. Sprays can also be applied to window and door frames, utility cable openings, and around pipe. Sprays can also be applied to window and door frames, utility cable openings, around pipe bibs, and any other place where you have noticed ants trailing. Never apply ant sprays as a wide broadcast across your lawn, and limit applications to once every six months.
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There are many concentrated insecticide sprays on the market that are labeled for killing ants. We strongly recommend you use a non-repellent spray such as Taurus SC. You can also use Termidor SC, but it's not as great of a value. Most ant sprays will only kill the ants that actually crawl over the treated surfaces. Since only about 20% of an ant colony is likely to venture out to forage for food these sprays will not adequately control the colony. The other downside of using other ant sprays is that ants are sensitive to most insecticides and will try to avoid the treated area, further lessening the effectiveness of the spray. Taurus SC, and other non-repellent products, are undetectable by ants and other insects so they readily cross over treated surfaces. Once the ants contact the surface the product sticks to their bodies, causing them to carry it back to the colony. Once the infected ants are back at the colony, they spread the Taurus SC around through social interaction with the other ants, eventually leading to colony elimination.

You will need a hand pump sprayer or a backpack sprayer to apply Taurus SC. You will mix 0.8 fl oz of product (or two 0.4 oz single dose packets) with each gallon of water. Most will need 1-2 gallons of finished solution to complete the perimeter application. You will need to apply the Taurus SC solution one foot up the foundation and one foot out onto the ground to build a barrier. You can also apply the solution around window frames, door frames, places where cables, pipes or wires enter the structure and any other place where you have noticed ants crawling or trailing on the structure. You cannot spray Taurus SC out in the yard as a broadcast spray, and you must limit applications to 2 times per year.

You should note that Taurus SC is formulated to have a slow kill time to allow the ants to spread the product around the colony, and it can take several weeks to see the full results.

Outdoor Ant Baiting

If you want to take control of ant infestations around the outside of your home or business, try using an ant bait! In this video we will go over the basics of how ant baits work, the different kinds of baits, and the way to use them, just like the pros!
Ant Baiting is one of the most effective ways to eliminate ants. Baits work well because they allow the ants to carry the bait back to the colony and the queen where it is spread around, eventually leading to elimination of the nest. When baiting outdoors, always use an ant bait station to protect the bait from the elements. Many varieties come pre-packaged in easy to place bait stations. If you are adding your own bait to an empty station, follow the instructions found on the product label. In most stations you will find two or three bait wells. We recommend using both a liquid and granular ant bait in the same station. Ants can be picky and will sometimes only accept one or the other based on their nutritional needs at the moment. When the stations are filled, place them outdoors in areas where you are seeing high levels of ant activity.
Check the stations once a week and replenish the bait as needed until the ant population is eliminated.
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Using an ant bait outdoors will allow you to exterminate ants that are farther away from your structure. We recommend you use both a liquid ant bait and a granular ant bait because ants can be picky and will sometimes only accept the liquid bait or sometimes only accept the granule bait, depending on what nutritional needs they are trying to meet. You can use both bait formulations in each station at one time. You should place the stations near areas where you are seeing high levels of ant activity. Check the stations once a week and replenish the bait as needed until the ant population has been eliminated.